Long Time Gone
by UA
Summary: Witches, talking dolls, black magic…what else could she expect from the place where no one truly died except a quadruple wedding? Kay, cast fic.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Passions. They belong to JER and NBC.  
  
Another fic borne from my disappointment with the show, started weeks ago before these silly weddings started. ; ) Read at your own risk, lol.  
  
  
  
  
  
Long Time Gone  
  
  
  
Prologue  
  
  
  
Hindsight's 20/20.  
  
Isn't that how it goes?  
  
Funny how even then she was so blind she couldn't see the signs flashing neon-bright in front of her face.  
  
It was Christmas Eve, 2002-the eve of the biggest spectacle Harmony had seen in centuries.  
  
That was saying a lot for the Eastern coast's apparent magnet of evil.  
  
Witches, talking dolls, black magic.what else could she expect from the place where no one truly died except a quadruple wedding?  
  
Four brides.  
  
Four grooms.  
  
And a year's supply of peptobismol guzzled the night before the tacky affair.  
  
The small church was quiet as Father Lonagin intoned the vows that would bind each couple for eternity. Or until reality dawned and they came to their senses.  
  
You could hear a pin drop.if it weren't for the constant, eerie wails of "Ethan" that seemed to get louder with each word from Father Lonagin's mouth.  
  
Ethan looked uncomfortable, but when hadn't he looked uncomfortable? He was the blanket, and Theresa and Gwen were the dogs on either side, tugging at him ferociously with their bared teeth.  
  
A shadow loomed at the stained-glass windows, and the pitiful wails of "Ethan" were deafening, joined now by a frightened babe's cries.  
  
Pilar slumped in the front pew a couple of rows ahead of her, muttering "Dios Mio."  
  
Father Lonagin rambled on, and Sheridan grimaced as her groom pawed her blindly, interrupting the priest in a soft but insistent voice. "Could we maybe hurry this along, Father Lonagin? You see my days are numbered, and the sooner I get to make love to the most beautiful woman in the world the better. She's all the medicine I need."  
  
Coach Russell rolled his eyes beside her, and Dr. Russell's hand rest on the black medical bag in her lap, ready to offer her expertise and care when Luis lunged forward, only restrained by Beth's iron grasp.  
  
Truth be told, even Beth looked a little disgusted.  
  
Sheridan's wide, pleading blue eyes stopped him, and the murmurs of unrest in the church were silenced as tears streamed down her face.  
  
When were the women in this town going to grow.a spine, she wondered, spreading her fingers out over her flat tummy with a smile on her lips and a twinkle in her blue eyes.  
  
Miguel's brown eyes connected with hers briefly, and he blanched when she stood up slowly, ignoring the painful clench of her mother's fingers on her arm.  
  
".speak now or forever hold you peace," Father Lonagin waited expectantly, and she shivered when the old man's sightless blue eyes lingered on her face.  
  
A loud crash made everyone in the church gasp as one, and Ivy's wheelchair whirred to life as she zipped to the back of the church, ignoring the shards of broken glass in her efforts to block Theresa's path to Ethan.  
  
"OBJECTION! OBJECTION!" Theresa shrieked as she brandished little Ethan Martin like a sword, scrambling over Ivy's wheelchair and trampling over her protesting mother. "You can't marry Gwen, Ethan. You have to marry me. You have to marry me, Ethan, and be a father to your son. Little Ethan's yours. I never slept with Julian. It never happened."  
  
Julian shuddered in relief, patting his jacket pocket and removing a cigar to smoke in celebration.  
  
Gwen's brown eyes flashed at the indecision on Ethan's face, and she tossed her bouquet of bridal flowers at him, hitting him square in the face, "You know what, Ethan? You're not worth the trouble. You need therapy for your Theresa obsession. Don't expect unsupervised visits with our child whether you marry Theresa or not. I'm having serious doubts about your mental health."  
  
"Oh, Ethan!" Theresa cried, tossing Ethan Martin to Phyllis and gluing herself to Ethan's side before Gwen had a chance to stomp away completely, "It's fate. We're destined to be together, Ethan. Now you can marry me."  
  
Miguel and Charity clutched hands tightly, and she noticed Miguel had progressed past pasty white to a nasty green as the quadruple wedding ceremony went to hell around them.  
  
Luis had to pry Beth's fingers from his arm to get to Sheridan's side before she collapsed in a puddle of jellyfish soup. "I can't. I can't do this anymore," she cried into her skirts, flinching away from Antonio's unwanted touch, "I can't pretend I love you anymore, Antonio. I love Luis, and he's the only man I want to marry. The only man I want to spend forever with, and the only man I want touching me."  
  
Beth fumed when Antonio didn't clutch his head in excruciating pain. She wanted the guilt of Antonio's head exploding in front of their family and friends to hang over Sheridan's and Luis's heads forever, dammit!  
  
Miguel looked like a scared little boy as she walked slowly and calmly down the aisle toward him and Charity, ignoring Jessica's protests and her mother's condemning words.  
  
"Kay? Kay, what are you doing?" Charity asked, her earlier expression of serenity frozen and twisted on her pale face.  
  
"I'm objecting," Kay answered her, smoothing her hands over her belly with a triumphant smirk. "Miguel can't marry you, Charity. Now or ever. Because he always does the right thing, Charity, and I know he'll do the right thing now."  
  
"Kay. Kay, stop it. I'm going to marry Charity. I love her. Only her. I don't love you, Kay. Nothing is going to change that," Miguel growled, each hurtful word pricking at her heart and making it bleed a little more until she had had enough. She wasn't blind anymore.  
  
"You'll never marry your precious Charity, Miguel. Never. You'll remember this moment. You'll remember how you broke your best friend's heart for the last time, and you won't be able to do it," she spat, crumpling up the white slip of paper in her hands and letting it drift to the floor as she grabbed a handful of her sparkling blue skirt and ran down the aisle, tripping in her haste to leave Harmony forever.  
  
Reese's hand was warm on her waist, his blue eyes were filled with compassion as he helped her to her feet, and she leaned forward impulsively, not caring that she made Jessica scowl when she brushed his cheek with her lips. "Kay.Kay, come back."  
  
"DEAR GOD, SHE'S GOT A GUN!" Julian screamed, ducking for cover as Beth trained the gun on his sister, and Luis and Sam scrambled to disarm her as she shrieked madly, "You're not going to steal Luis from me again, Sheridan. You'll die first!"  
  
Screams of terror filled the small church, and the little white paper was forgotten.  
  
Lost.  
  
And Kay was a long time gone. 


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1  
  
  
  
COFFEE QUEEN JAILED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER OF BACK-FROM-THE DEAD CRANE HEIRESS.  
  
"Prom Queen pictures from the 80's," Kay grimaced, "Nice touch." She crumpled the newspaper between her fists. Beth's wild eyes gave her the creeps.  
  
A week.  
  
Seven whole days she'd been 'gone,' and nothing.  
  
NOTHING.  
  
Was her face on a milk carton?  
  
Yeah right. And there were MISSING posters all over Harmony.  
  
A girl could dream, couldn't she?  
  
Kay kept one hand over her tummy as she adjusted the strap of her knapsack on her shoulder and stuffed her hair under the baseball cap she'd 'borrowed' from Miguel and conveniently forgotten to return, "Don't worry, Kid. I'm going to get us out of this Hell-hole, and we're going to make our own damned happily ever after just as soon as we score some cash. Putting the screws to Ivy Crane should do the trick, don't you think?"  
  
Getting into the Crane Mansion should be easy enough, Kay decided as she left the park bench she'd called home for the last week in Lighthouse Park behind her. Hey.if Theresa managed to make it past security.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"You have NO right to throw me out of this house, Ivy! I'm the legal Mrs. Crane!" Theresa shrieked, wrapping her arms around the winding banister and holding on for dear life.  
  
"That's your Aunt Theresa," Kay whispered, ducking out of sight behind the massive Christmas tree still standing in the foyer, "Trust me. You'll thank me for skipping the formal introductions. She's such a Drama Queen."  
  
"No! No, Ivy, you can't make me leave! There aren't any divorce papers. I ate them, remember? You won't take what's rightfully mine away from me," Theresa blustered.  
  
"Dear God," Ivy scoffed, "Ethan, are you even listening to the garbage spewing from Paracita's mouth?"  
  
"Mother, I won't have you calling the mother of my child names," Ethan spouted, taking little Ethan Martin from Phyllis's waiting arms, "Apologize this instant."  
  
Ha, Kay thought. At least he caught it that time. Still, her brother was unquestionably a complete dumbass, and it obviously wasn't from Ivy's side of the family. Miguel was no Einstein either. Geez, she hoped she wasn't carrying the second coming of Forrest Gump.  
  
"Like hell I will," Ivy shrilled, circling Theresa with her wheelchair and giving her a menacing look. "Get out before I leave tire marks all over your scrawny lying greedy ass," Ivy threatened. "I mean it, Theresa."  
  
"Ethan," Theresa cried, brown eyes huge and spilling over with crocodile tears as she unclenched her fingers from the banister and slid to the floor, Ivy's wheelchair circling her faster and faster.  
  
"Mother, leave Theresa alone," Ethan hurried to his fiancee's rescue, pulling her to her feet. "Theresa, we'll be fine on our own. We have Ethan Martin and love, and that's all we need to be happy," Ethan tried to convince her. "We still have to work on our trust, but other than that."  
  
"But I DESERVE all this, Ethan. I'm not ready for the clock to strike midnight yet," Theresa's blubbering could be heard all the way out the door.  
  
"Did I mention she has this warped sense of reality?" Kay muttered under her breath, stepping out from behind the Christmas tree when she heard Ivy zip into the living room, bitching about Theresa in one breath and lusting over her father in the other, "She thinks she's the reincarnation of Cinderella."  
  
A maid scurried past at that moment, breakfast tray held high, without even batting an eyelash, and a slow grin spread over Kay's face as she felt the beginnings of an idea form in her head.  
  
She grabbed a candy cane off the branch nearest to her and stuck it in her mouth, making her way upstairs.  
  
"Let Ivy enjoy her breakfast first.we'll deal with her later." 


End file.
